Echoes of Ember
by Such Shipping. Wow
Summary: Korra is left broken after her battle with Amon, unable to overcome his removal of her bending. Hoping for an easy way out, she gets more than she bargained for when Aang sends her to a ghost of Ember Island, to learn from old friends and a new enemy. A rewrite of the end of Book 1, with an alternative story where Korra has to work to get her bending back. Eventual KorraXNoatak.
1. Chapter 1

"I love you, Korra."

"I-I can't."

"Korra!"

The Avatar, stripped of her dignity and three of the four elements, ran to Naga and swung herself onto his back. The polar bear dog lumbered forward, taking Korra away from Mako, Tenzin, and everyone that cared about her.

She'd let them down. Amon got away, she couldn't bend the four elements, and it was only dumb luck that she'd even managed to come up with air bending at the last possible moment, fending off Amon. Naga made it as far as the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean before she dismounted, walking up to the edge before tears started to spill out. She collapsed to her knees, coming to terms with her fate, when the swish of familiar robes caught her eye.

"Not now Tenzin. I wanna' be left alone."

"But you called me here," came the reply, not quite mirthful, but far from melancholy. Korra whipped her head around, eyes wide, as she realized just who spoke to her.

"Aang," she rasped out, eyes wide with barely concealed hope.

"You have finally connected with your spiritual self," he continued, sun peeking out behind dark storm clouds behind the airbender.

"How?"

Aang never let the peaceful look slip from his face. He wasn't there to scold the new Avatar, and he certainly wasn't about to let his successor drown in her own misery.

"When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change."

To accentuate his point, and the surreality of his appearance, Korra's past lives fanned out behind him, showing her vast history.

He touched a finger to her head and another to her chest. Relief flooded inside her as she realized that he was bailing her out of everything that was wrong. She fought to keep the smile off her face, but immediately broke out in a sharp frown when, instead of the welcome feeling of her bending abilities returning, she saw Aang start to fade from sight, along with the past Avatars.

"Wait, weren't you going to give me my bending back?" She asked of the famous energybender, who was surprisingly even-tempered, given the accusatory tone and pointed finger. As he fully faded from her sight, his voice echoed out for only her ears.

"You have to discover yourself to truly open up those pathways, Korra. You must earn your place as the Avatar."

The implications hung heavy. Before she could so much as open her mouth to tell him what, exactly, she thought of that, her world spun out of control, and she vanished the same way Aang did.

Hours later, Tenzin would go looking for her when Naga returned without the Avatar, and as night fell, he managed to reach the cliff, Korra's footprints reaching the edge without any further trace of a trail.

Tenzin paced madly back and forth inside one of the many tents in the encampment. With Korra gone, people were beginning to turn to him for guidance. The White Lotus had stationed sentries outside of his family's temporary dwelling, hoping to stem the tide of frightened civilians. Suddenly, a guard was flung into the tent, followed closely by a large white ball of fur.

"NAGA!" Meelo pounced on the polarbear dog, quickly followed by Ikki. Jinora took a more reserved approach in embracing the beast.

"Naga," started Tenzin, "Where on earth is Korra?"

Pemma shot him an inquisitive look as he reddened, realizing that the polarbear dog could not, in fact, tell him the location of the avatar. He quickly strode out of the tent, shouting over his shoulder that he would be back by sundown.

After following Naga's tracks for miles, Tenzin was finally brought to the edge of the cliff where Korra had vanished. He bit back a gasp and forced himself to avoid fearing the worst. His own father had, notably, on the eve of his greatest crisis, vanished to speak with the Lion Turtle; he could only hope that a great spirit was taking care of Korra, and that she was in good hands. Wrapping his cloak closer to his body, he headed back to his family with a heavy heart.

After an indeterminate period of time, Korra regained consciousness and peeled herself off of the sand, damp from incoming waves. She dragged herself to her feet, and forced back another round of sobs as she realized that she couldn't waterbend the moisture out of her clothes. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn't cold. In fact, in her soaked tunic, she felt uncomfortably warm. She looked warily at her surroundings, knowing that the polar water was a million times more likely to give her hypothermia than to make her regret wearing her coat. Sliding the wet fabric down her arms and off of her torso, she let out a sigh of relief as the added weight of damp cloth was relieved.

When she finally took stock of where she was, however, she yelped in fear. There were palm trees, dunes, huts, waves, rocks- she stopped her frantic mind and breathed in deep. The last thing she remembered, Aang had given her a cryptic message about getting her bending back.

"Where am I?" she mused, breathing shallow and fast, despite her efforts to keep calm. She felt the onset of a panic attack.

"Ember Island. Or, at least, some version of it," came his clipped reply. She spun her head around to the direction of the voice, and what she saw surprised her. He was around her age, with thick brown hair styled in a ponytail that reminded her of her own. He was tan, and wore pants and shoes reminiscent of out of fashion Water Tribe clothes. He had a shirt on, but it looked to be made of mesh rather than anything she'd seen in the South. Based on his bearing and familiarity with the area, she assumed that he'd been here at least a little longer than her, but his clothing made her think that he, like she herself, hadn't been prepared for a trip to the beach.

"Why are you here?" He glowered, eyes narrowing. Korra couldn't help but think she'd seen that look before.

"It's polite to introduce yourself before you start interrogating me, you know," she bit back, hoping that tough words would make her feel less panicked and vulnerable than she did now. All of this did little to assuage her panic, however, when he spoke back.

"My name is Noatak."

Her eyes shot wide and she struggled to stay on her feet. She stumbled backwards, ending up on her rear, and crab-crawled farther back than that.

"N-No," she pleaded, tears coming back to her eyes. He was here to finish her off. This was the end.

"You just said it was polite to introduce yourself, and I've yet to get your name," he said, seeming to ignore her distancing herself from him, but raising an eyebrow in marked interest.

"You're-you're," she stammered, unable to even form words. He looked utterly disinterested in her, and it was only then that she really looked at him. He was young, far younger than she'd ever known him. He looked as young as her, even. She stood up, trying to compose herself enough to answer him. He hadn't killed her yet, at least.

"My name is Korra," she replied, eyes narrowing in distrust, seeing if her name sparked him into action.

He showed no more recognition than he had when he saw her face on washing up on the beach. He wasn't, at least as far as she could tell, going to kill her. He didn't even seem to know who she was.

"That's a water tribe name," he mused, "and your clothes seem vaguely similar to Water Tribe garb."

She snorted, despite herself.

"Please, my clothes aren't just similar to Water Tribe clothes, they _are_ Water Tribe clothes. Your clothes make you look like you got dragged out of a few decades ago."

Only as she finished her thought did she realize exactly what she'd said. What it meant.

"How did you get here?" She asked, morbidly curious of his answer. It had to be a joke. There was no way this could actually be happening as she thought it was.

"I was running in a blizzard and lost consciousness. I washed up here on the shore some time ago."

"How long ago?" She managed to say, her voice trembling with barely contained effort. This was impossible, after all, and she had to reconcile that with the fact that she was living the impossible.

"Hard to say. Time seems to drag on here, and they either won't or can't tell me how long it's been."

She gave him a good look-over, and saw the man he would someday become. Here he was, in the flesh, seemingly without any knowledge of his actions in Republic City. He had some of the same bitterness in his eyes, but without the true malice that years of hate had built up in him; he didn't just look younger, he really was younger.

She started to panic again, spinning herself to look out into the open ocean. She wasn't an expert on Fire Nation geography, but she knew that Ember Island was part of an island chain that made up the Fire Nation. There should have been, at least somewhere on the horizon, evidence of another island, or a ship, or anything marking her location relative to the rest of reality.

"There's nothing out there," he seemed to read her mind, his voice dropping in volume, as if he was speaking conspiratorially.

She turned to face him again, and, already fearing the worst, asked him, "You said a second ago that '_they'_ won't tell you how long it's been. Who are 'they'?"

At first he looked down at the ground in what she assumed was a mixture of fear and shame. Whoever these people were, they had the man who would come to be known as Amon in a tizzy.

She realized her assumption was wrong as he rose his eyes to meet hers, and she got a good look at the displeasure in his gaze. What she thought was fear was really just strong aversion.

"Two of the most infuriating men you will ever, in all your days, meet."

He rose from his place on a rock and walked back over a dune. Taking that as her cue to follow him, she steeled her resolve and jogged after her arch-nemesis. Seeing a small group of huts clustered just past another dune, she reached him and matched his pace, trying to muster up enough courage to speak.

"Where are we going?" She finally managed, almost as they reached the door of a hut.

"Isn't that obvious?" He replied, crossing through the threshold, leaving her outside in the sun. She stood dumbstruck for a minute or two more before following him into what she assumed was his home, and saw him inside, putting a teapot on the stove.

"You drink tea?" She asked, incredulous. Who in their right mind would've thought Amon to eat and drink like any other human being?

He snorted. "It's practically all there is to drink here."

With that comment they lapsed into an uneasy silence. She couldn't think of anything else to say, really, and it was only when the kettle started to steam that he moved from his place staring into space.

Setting two cups at the small table in the center of the hut, he poured into each and gestured for her to sit. When she recovered from her shock, she did so, and brought the cup to her lips. It wasn't bad, she noted, but whether the taste was from the ingredients themselves or the preparation, she had no idea.

"You're probably going to be stuck here for a while," he murmured, almost too quietly for her to hear.

"I have to get back home," she said. Her eyes tightened with resolve.

"I have much better things to do than sit here all day drinking tea, believe me," he asserted, almost as if to convince himself. She held back comments about his personal history, feeling like she knew him better than he knew himself. He only had inklings of what he would become, no way of knowing the atrocities he would commit.

"I'm sure you do," she agreed, barely contained malice. For the first time, she contemplated killing him, when they were alone, when she had the chance to do so. Maybe that was what Aang meant? If she killed him here, would there even _be_ an Amon in the future? Tarrlok had said that he and his father thought Noatak died in a blizzard. Would it be so bad if he died here, on an island, shortly after he disappeared from the north?

She calmed her own murderous impulses; Aang was nothing if not a pacifist, and the notion that he would send her on a murder mission seemed ridiculous, when she actually thought about it. She would have to pass whatever test he had laid out for her before she got her bending back, and Noatak's words about remaining on the island started to make her panic. How long would it take to relearn three of the four elements? Aang had done it in a year under extreme duress, but the thought of spending that long away from her family, her friends, and her boyfriend was disheartening.

'_Mako'._

Even thinking his name made her sick. She'd run out on him, after he'd poured out his heart to her. Would he want her back? Did she want to go back? Would a year away from him change either of their feelings for the other?

'_I'm not going to stay away for a year,' _she resolved, already planning her great escape. Surely Aang would understand; who would want to stay away from all they'd ever known for that long? Without proper teachers, it could be a lifetime before she had her old mastery back.

"You've been staring into space for a while," Noatak observed, feigning disinterest. However long he'd been here, she realized, it must have felt even longer without company. The mysterious figures he alluded to earlier seemed to make poor company, if he chose to live by himself out in a hut. She wondered how long it really was that he was stuck here, even if he himself seemed to have given up on keeping track. She looked on his face for fine lines around his eyes and on his forehead, any hints of the man he would become. When she found none, she was launched back out of her own thoughts by her companion's not-so-subtle coughs.

"Ahem."

She blushed, despite herself. Had she just spaced out on him again? Clearing her throat, she murmured out weak apologies.

"Thank you for the tea, it was quite good," she praised, and he gave a muted 'hn' in reply.

"They taught me how to make it like this," he revealed, "but I haven't quite gotten it right yet."

Already sick of the ambiguity, she narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she asked, "Just who are 'they'? Really. Names, faces, anything."

He shrugged, which caused her to narrow her eyes further into angry slits. He was being about as uncooperative as was possible, she reckoned.

"Do you not know?" She seethed, voice heavy with doubt. When he nodded to the affirmative, she felt the fury slip away, replaced with confusion.

"How could you not know? Have you not asked them their names?"

He snorted, and she felt as if she was being mocked. Knowing him, she probably was.

"As if that wasn't the first thing I tried," he admitted, eyes downcast again. She realized that he was worried, too, in his own way.

"Did you try, uh, beating them up?" She asked, beating her hand into her first for emphasis. She didn't want to let on that she knew too much, but even at this age she knew he would be a very powerful waterbender, and a bloodbender to boot. Who were these people?

"My bending doesn't seem to work properly on them," he confessed, and she realized that he had yet to reveal to her that he was a bloodbender. She wasn't sure how much longer she could go on pretending she didn't know.

"What kind of bender are you?" She asked, and he gestured down to his clothes in answer. She nodded, not sure how to proceed.

"Are you any good?" She continued, probing for more information, or any hint that she could jump on.

"I'm alright at it," he lied, but his face was neutral, and he didn't let on that he was any better than an average bender. She supposed that, for the time being, that would have to suffice.

"Are you a bender?" He asked, expecting her affirmation.

"Yes. I'm an airbender," She said, regretting that, at the moment, that really was all she could do.

Noatak raised an eyebrow. "Wearing those clothes?" This time, his eyes narrowed. She nodded, opting to be as cryptic as he had been.

"Airbenders are rather rare, these days," he added. Korra gasped. Her connection to the former Avatar would be revealed. In his youth, his father had ordered him to hunt after the Avatar, and he knew that to be Aang. The only airbender he knew of was Aang, and maybe Tenzin, and that meant he would assume she was connected to the two of them somehow.

"The clothes are in style in Republic City," she lied, and he merely nodded his head. Despite her tanned skin and clothing, he had no reason to doubt her, at least if she proved her claim to be true. Generating a small ball of whirling air in her hand, she held it up for his inspection before dissipating it in a swirl of winds.

"So you are," he allowed, and they lapsed again into silence. She finished her cup of tea with a series of small sips, and rose from the table.

"I'm going to have a look around," she informed him, and started to step for the door. Without so much as a nod, he watched her leave, finishing his own cup. As Korra almost reached the door, it swung in, nearly hitting her in the face. She nearly fell over in shock, steadying herself on the table after staggering back a few steps. Before she looked back to the door, she caught Noatak's steely gaze directed at the figure at the door. He hissed his displeasure, and she felt frozen solid, caught between Amon's angry eyes and whatever was likely giving the young man the same cross look from the door.

When she heard deep, mirthful laughter instead, she nearly hurt her neck whipping it around so fast. In the doorframe was a portly old man with deep laugh lines and creases in his brow, but with one of the kindest smiles she could ever recall seeing. The Avatar couldn't help but feel that she should know who this man was, that she did know who this man was, but when she tried to tap into any of Aang's memories, all she got was a very strong mental block.

"Do I," she paused, not sure how to advance, "know you?"

The man let out another resonating laugh, but did not respond to her question. Unpacking a small bag he carried with him, he went to work stocking Noatak's cabinets with various tea tins and food supplies. Taking out what she assumed were the old, empty containers, he repacked his bag silently. Despite his easy demeanor, there was a great tension in the room, and she couldn't help but feel that she, along with Noatak, needed answers out of this man and any companions he had with him.

"Who are you?" She shouted, finally losing her temper as he seemed ready to leave the hut without saying a word. She was in a combat stance, ready to pounce, even as the old man merely put his hands up in mock surrender.

"You remind me of my nephew," he said, rubbing his beard in remembrance. Korra tensed her legs, sick of the old man's refusal to help her, but before she could leap, she felt a strong hand on her shoulder.

"It's not worth it," Noatak admitted, unable to meet her eyes. It was then that she realized that, whoever this guy was, even the most powerful bender she'd ever met couldn't stop him. Did she, with only her airbending, have any chance to do what he couldn't?

She relaxed her body, and the old man looked on her with pity.

"Truly, it pains me to see you straying so far from your path," he revealed, his baritone echoing softly in the hut.

Korra's eyes widened at his sympathetic comments.

"You seem to know more than you let on. You could help me find whatever path it is I have to be looking for," she reasoned, thinking of marked similarities between this man and Tenzin, when he spoke to her in such a way that made her pick through the words for his meaning.

"I can merely guide you," he confessed, door in hand, "You must find the path on your own."

He closed the door behind him, and she was left once again in the hut alone with Noatak.

"Just like I said earlier," the boy mumbled, "utterly infuriating." He glared daggers at the door, as if he could will pain on the man who had just left.

"He seems nice enough," she allowed, but didn't disagree with his sentiment about the man. He was, at the very least, well mannered and sagely, even if he wouldn't just tell her what she wanted to know. Was this what Aang had intended her to do? Live with her arch-enemy and a bunch of old men who spoke in riddles? She worried about just how bad the second of these two mystery men really was.

As if reading her mind, Noatak said, "the second one is arguably even worse than him."

If Korra didn't know better, she would've said Noatak was pouting.

"Don't seem so glum about it. At least he doesn't seem dangerous," she said, attempting to find a bright side to the entire affair.

Noatak's face went slack at her words. "Don't, in any way, think that they aren't dangerous. The two of them are incredible benders, and I'm not too sure they're really as sane as their apparent kindness would make you think."

Korra stifled a barking laugh. Never did she think she would hear Amon call anyone else, let alone a kindly old man, insane.

'_To be fair, I never thought I'd be sharing tea with him either,'_ she realized, seeing once again how human Noatak really was.

"Where _is_ the second of these two guys?" She queried, looking to at least get acquainted with him. She hadn't seen or heard anyone else since arriving on the island, even though she recalled it was a vacation hotspot for the wealthier people of the fire nation. It seemed like the whole island had been abandoned. In fact, she hadn't seen any animals, either, when she really thought about it. No seagull-rats overhead, or star-hermitcrabs scuttling around on the beach. It seemed like she, Noatak, that old man, and a fourth figure were the only life on the island.

"The man you just met lives in a large house towards the center of the island. Naturally, I situated myself as far away from him as I could," Noatak explained, revealing that his exile to a hut was self-imposed rather than mandated. She nodded along with his words, starting to get some sense of life on this island.

"I can only assume that the other man lives in the mansion as well, or in some adjacent area. I see much less of him. The only contact I really have with them is when one brings me supplies or they come down to pester me."

"Do they come down to give you supplies often?" She asked, in genuine interest. She would have never taken Amon as the type to be pampered and delivered food and necessary supplies.

"There is nothing to hunt on this island. The only food I can find is what they bring me, so I am in that way dependent on them for survival," he explained, and said nothing more on the matter.

Korra spent the remaining hour or so in the day thinking, trying to figure out just what was going to become of her. Noatak did largely the same, shading more towards how this new arrival would change life on the island. They sat in silence until the sun started to set, casting long shadows across the inside of the hut. A knock at the door made both occupants shoot upright, and Noatak grunted out a guff, "what do you want?" as the door swung open.

Just behind the man she'd seen earlier in the day, Korra spotted another silhouette, slightly misshapen, and limping along. If the man she'd seen before was old, this new arrival was absolutely _ancient. _His beard was wild and unkempt, and his hair was largely the same, both jutting away from his face in shocks of white. One of his eyes was glassy and clear, as if he were blind on that side, and his posture made her think he had a hunchback. She gulped quietly. He seemed like a monster, compared to the genial grandfather the first man was. When he caught her eye, both of his bushy eyebrows shot up his face, and he broke out in a toothy grin, a few teeth short of a full set.

The Avatar felt herself sweat even in the chillier night air. He looked deranged, and she feared for her safety. She looked to the door, the only exit, blocked by the first of the two old men, and as the second stalked closer to her, she raised her hands to shield her from his assault.

When she felt a palm clap down hard on her head, she opened her eyes and moved her hands to get a better look at the geezer. His grin hadn't faltered in the slightest, and he was starting to buckle with snorting laughter.

"You look good for an old man, Aang!" He chortled, slapping his knee at his strange attempt at humor. The man strutted away from the startled Korra, and the incredulous Noatak.

"What did he just call you?" The waterbender asked, probably overwhelmed by the sheer amount of questions that one comment had just raised. Korra was just as confused. Clearly they knew she was the Avatar, but why had they called her Aang? Were these men old members of Aang's gang?

"That and more will be answered in time," the gold-eyed man replied, as he led his companion out of the hut. With them, Korra feared, would go her chance at answers. She wracked her brain for any clue as to who they were. The younger of the two had golden eyes reminiscent of the Fire Nation aristocracy, but without a scar on his face, she knew he couldn't be Zuko. She knew even less about the other man, as his strange robes would have placed him as an Earth Kingdom monarch, but he wasn't any more familiar to her than the first. Any attempt to get into Aang's memories were blocked, until even Katara's face started to blur.

"We will have much to discuss, Avatar," he said, holding the door open for her to pass through. Frozen there in place, she felt completely helpless. Turning to Noatak for backup, she saw his face twisted in rage. It was then that she realized what, exactly, had been said.

"You're the Avatar?" He seethed, caring less about the actual believability of that statement as far as his own timeline was concerned, and more about the idea that he'd harbored his father's greatest enemy under his roof. He had his falling out with Yakone, but years of anti-Avatar sentiments had left him bitter toward the World Spirit. He bared his teeth in a wicked snarl.

"Get out of here," he ordered, sweeping his arm towards the door. Struck dumb, Korra obeyed his wishes, taking the lead the two mystery men had set. Once outside the hut, she turned to the gold-eyed old man, and asked, "where do I go now?"

"You may live with us, if you so desire," the younger replied, but Korra shook her head to express her distaste for the idea. Honestly, she trusted them about as much as she trusted Noatak, and she knew who he would become, and what he would do to her.

"I'll live in one of these huts," she decided, gesturing to the others among the cluster where Noatak made his home.

"We'll discuss this more after you've rested," he said, as the two started walking away. Glumly, Korra walked over to the hut farthest away from Noatak's, and realized just how tired she really was. As soon as she got inside, she collapsed onto the small bed.

Meanwhile, the two older men conversed in hushed tones on their hike.

"You may have said too much," Iroh chastised, but without sternness. If anything, there was a sparkling in his eyes.

"I simply wanted to greet an old friend properly," Bumi retorted, his smirk making Iroh chuckle.

"Surely, with your _advanced age_, you could show a little more restraint?" The firebender teased, but soon after a small slab of earth sprung forward and hit him in the rump. He looked up to the giggling Bumi with a withering glare.

"Now just who are _you_ calling old, you old coot?" The earthbender asked. They looked at each other and laughed, their figures fading off into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

In her dreams, Korra saw frenzied images of Aang's first mission as Avatar. She felt his hopelessness in the final days before Sozin's Comet, and his elation when a Lion-Turtle taught him the lost art of bending the energy inside a person. Watching the conclusion of his fight against Ozai, she wished that she had been stolen away in the night by a great spirit, and wasn't simply left with two crazy old men. On the eve of her great crisis, where were the spirits of the world to come to her aid? Her negative emotions spiked images of her own life, and her time in Republic City. Scattered amongst the general turmoil, there were a few happy memories, and she held those close as the night drew to a close.

When Korra work up the next morning, she was drooling into her pillow and still extremely groggy. It took her upwards of fifteen minutes to fully shake off the long night of sleep, and even longer to realize that the reason she had woken up was because of bright sun shining in through a window of her hut. She worked herself up into a frenzy, pacing back and forth in the limited floor space she had, going over her jumbled memories from the previous night.

'_If only it really was just a bad dream,' _she bemoaned, referring to what seemed to be the last weeks of her life. She'd gone from a cocky bending prodigy to a beaten shell of her former self in as long as it took her to get to the bottom of Amon, and to add on to her failings in Republic City, she was now out in the middle of nowhere with no way back home. Just what did they think happened to her when she mysteriously vanished?

She managed to get a few paces out of her front door before she noticed one of the men from last night sitting cross-legged on the beach near her hut.

"Ah, Avatar Korra. You slept in this morning," he noted, opening his eyes from meditation, and patting down his robes as he stood up. He rubbed at his long beard absently, gold eyes gleaming in the sun.

"How long were you waiting out here?" She asked, worried, for some reason, that she'd made the man wait. She squashed that emotion down when she realized that he was very likely one of her captors.

"Not very long at all," he confessed, smiling benevolently at her. She noticed how his face creased up when he did so, and she pondered on how many times he'd smiled that same smile in life for his entire face to be so full of laugh-lines.

"Now, I am sure you have many questions," he said, pressing on to more important matters. His face took on a stern note, and she felt self-conscious in front of him. She waited for him to continue speaking, to tell her that now was not the time for answers, but he didn't. He simply quirked a brow and looked at her expectantly, then burst out into a belly-laugh when she blushed.

"Do not be so hesitant to ask, Korra."

"Why am I here?" She blurted out, altogether too quickly and too loudly.

Ignoring her faux pas, he spoke, "to regain your bending, of course."

"I haven't regained it yet," she informed him, hands on her hips.

"You are very impatient," he chastised, "a common trait amongst those who seem to have their destiny thrust upon them."

As if sensing that their conversation might stretch on for a while longer, he sat back down and unpacked a kettle from his knapsack. Pouring out water from a satchel, he patted the ground in front of him. Still wary, Korra took a place across from him on the sand, and watched as he prepared tea.

"We don't have a fire-" she started, but stopped as soon as she saw steam coming out of the clay. He'd heated it himself.

"Who are you?" She asked, "You dress like you're from the Earth Kingdom, but you just firebended in front of me."

"That is a question I cannot answer. You will come to regain those memories as you come to know yourself."

"So I know you, but I don't remember you?" She pressed on, hands on her knees as she leaned forward. Passing her a hot cup, she took it with a hurried, 'thanks'.

"In a way, yes." He allowed, but said nothing more on the matter. When she was sure she wasn't going to get him to out himself, she switched back to lighter topics.

"Noatak said you taught him how to make tea," she said, in a way that made it clear she didn't quite believe it.

"The art of brewing tea was one I dedicated my life to. I would be doing that young man a disservice if I did not try to pass on my knowledge," he replied, mischief twinkling in his eyes. Korra realized with a start that she'd started to smile along with him, and quickly corrected her lips into a frown.

"Why is he here?" She asked, and he knew that trying to dodge this question like he had previously would only lead to distrust and strained relationships.

"I truthfully do not know. He came here some time before you did, but time passes differently here. It could have been a month or a decade."

"He doesn't look a day over twenty," she said, seeming skeptical, "if he was here for a decade, I'm sure you would have known."

"I do not spend all my time here, but I do know that his physical age does not define him," he confessed, "I feel that my companion may be able to provide you with more adequate answers. I can tell you is that Avatar Aang brought you here, and that he likely also brought Noatak."

"I don't know how much you know about what's been going on in Republic City," she said, feeling a tirade coming on, "but that guy is bad news. Somehow he's not really the same guy he is there, because he was like forty there, but he's not really forty here, and he takes people's bending away, and he's evil, and he tried to take over the city, and-" she cut herself off, at first to take a breath, but then to scowl at the man facing her, who was chuckling into his hand.

"You think this is funny?" She snapped, realizing just how silly she just sounded.

"Not in the slightest," he joked, shaking off the last of his giggles.

"Seriously, this is bad news. The version of him _I _know is still out there, somewhere, and he's going to try to take over the city again! I need to get my bending back and get back to help as soon as I can."

The potbellied old man opened his mouth as if he were about to speak, then snapped it shut. He repeated this process a few more times until a snarky, 'say it already!' from Korra got him to stop long enough to think.

"I am not sure you are quite ready to hear this," he warned, "but his being here most likely means that Noatak is dead."

She didn't know how to respond to that. If Amon was dead, why was a younger version of him here? She didn't think too deeply into if before her head started to hurt. Whatever was going on

"I'm not dead, and I'm here," she informed him, and he nodded genially.

"Yes, but you are the Avatar. Your spirit moves most freely as the bridge between worlds."

"Are we in the Spirit World then?" She asked, not fully buying into the idea that she was somehow in the Spirit World, let alone that Amon had died. In fact, she remembered bending last night, and had seen this man bend right in front of her! As far as she knew, bending didn't work in the spirit world.

"In a way," he responded, but once again said nothing more. Her hands shot up to her hair and she yanked on it, letting out a frustrated groan.

"If we are in the Spirit World, how are you bending? How did I bend?" She said, speaking more to herself than to him.

"As you spend more time here, I am sure you will find the answers that you seek," he consoled, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. Shaking it off, she rose to her feet, half-finished teacup left on the ground.

"Enough of these riddles. If you won't answer my other questions, at least answer me this: how am I going to get my bending back?"

His face lit up, as if she'd finally asked the right question. Her face mirrored his, as she realized that he was actually going to help.

"That is up to you to determine. We can only help as much as you will allow us to."

Her face fell. She realized, after she started to sulk away back to her house, that he hadn't even answered her final question without more riddles. Useless old man.

Korra spent the better part of her morning in meditation, trying in vain to make Aang speak to her again. She hadn't even wanted _him_, specifically, out on the cliff, but he came nonetheless. He even said she was more connected to her spiritual self! Yet now, sitting cross-legged on the beach until her butt was sore, and her foot fell asleep, she couldn't get so much as a peep out of him. Her limited contact to previous Avatars, snuffed out before she even really got to use it. Was she no longer fit to be Avatar? The thought frightened her more than anything she'd ever considered before.

She spent her time 'meditating' focused more on her own shortcomings than solving her inner turmoil. She was an Avatar of action! Meditation was for guys like Tenzin and Aang, not her. She had more important things to do with her time than sit around all day and let her thoughts fester. Had Aang really found time for this on his strict deadline? She imagined he had, but then again she also assumed that he had the entire world supporting him, except for the one man who wouldn't ever back down peacefully. Why didn't she have a support net like him? Sure she had her family and friends, but Amon had a huge base of support in his fight against benders, and therefore his fight against the Avatar. What kind of Avatar was she if a masked megalomaniac could convince the better part of Republic City to follow his plans?

It wasn't much longer until, sun directly overhead, Korra dropped any pretense of meditating, and rolled ungracefully onto her back, staring up at the sky. She layed like this for what felt like hours, but was likely only a few minutes, until her doubts started to creep up on her again. Even as a child, she'd never felt this detached from the other elements. When she tried to call up fire, water, or earth, all she got was a scrunched up face and a headache. She thought about how Aang must have felt, the entire weight of the world on his shoulders, but only air to fight back until he learned the other 3. It was ironic, how the always mellow, flighty airbender had undertaken the biggest burden any Avatar had in recent history. Her own problems, defending one city, seemed scant by comparison. She was embarrassed again, that he could do so much so young, and she, pampered by some of the best professional teachers possible, already a young woman, could do so little.

A shadow cast over her field of vision, leaving an almost sinister silhouette. When she sat up, she saw it was the other man from the prior night, carrying armfuls of fruits.

"I thought you might be hungry," he explained, and tapped his foot awkwardly. He seemed less enthusiastic than last night, and more bashful around her.

"Do you have any meat here? Noatak mentioned there was nothing to hunt, but I don't think I could get by on just fruit," she said, erasing the awkward silence. He looked flabbergasted that she'd asked, and stammered out apologies.

"I never thought you'd ask for meat," he nearly whispered, seeming to be mesmerized by her very existence. The hard edge his voice had the night before was all but gone, and he looked saddened.

"Why wouldn't I want to eat meat?" She questioned, looking at him like he was crazy, "are you some kind of vegetarian or something?"

"M-me? No, no, nothing like that," he sputtered, looking about as uncomfortable as anyone she'd ever seen.

"Would you want to go explore the island?" He asked, looking hopeful.

She was going to simply decline his request, but when she saw how excited he looked, she couldn't contain the burst of anger that rose up.

"Are you nuts or something? You're part of the group that brought me here, I'm sure, you called me Aang last night, and you seem confused that I like other types of food that aren't island fruit. Now you want to go exploring?"

At his downcast eyes, she realized, finally, what was going on. He'd called her Aang. Aang was a vegetarian, she knew. Clearly, this man knew Aang when he was alive.

"Are you serious? Do you think I'm Aang or something?"

His lack of response was evidence enough for her.

"I'm not him! I will never be him! I won't ever be the hero he was, and I won't ever be _whatever_ he was to _you_!"

She regretted what she'd said when he looked at her like a beaten polarbear-dog.

"You're right. I'm sorry," he conceded, shoulders deflating.

She exhaled sharply through her nose, but didn't let her tone slip, or the sternness leave her voice.

"Do whatever it takes to get me out of here. I'm not going to learn anything around the three of you," she commanded, crossing her arms across her chest.

"I'm afraid I can't do that-" he started, but she cut him off before he could give her more excuses.

"I don't care what it takes, old man. Between you, the fat one, and _him_, there's no way I could even meditate here, let alone relearn the other three elements!"

"I think that if you stay for a while, you will see that there is still much to learn," he said, almost as if he was reading it off a script. She knew that the other man had likely told him to say as much, and she felt the fire in her belly rekindle as she realized she was being patronized.

"You're two feeble old men, and the guy who lives in that hut," she pointed for emphasis,"is about the worst possible teacher I could imagine! If anything, I'll just get fat and old from sitting here too long, like you two lugs have!"

"I would hardly say that I'm fat," he said, attempting to lighten the mood. She nearly screamed.

"I'm going to beat the stuffing out of you, you useless bag of bones!" She howled, charging him.

Noatak heard the commotion from outside his hut as soon as she'd raised her voice the first time, but he remained silent and contemplative long into her tirade at the second man.

He was, in many ways, as much prisoner here as she was. When she'd heard the first of the two elders explain that he was likely dead, he fought through Korra's words to find meaning. He was rampaging around Republic City? He stifled a snort. That was about as likely as her being the Avatar! Aang was certainly still alive, but even if he'd died, this girl was in her late teens, and Aang definitely hadn't been dead for long enough for the next Avatar to be this old. Last he remembered, he'd been walking through the blizzard on the final night before he'd never see his family again, and woke up here. He realized that it very well may have been a long time since he'd come, since he felt a little taller, a little stronger, than he remembered. His clothes seemed to fit perfectly, but he could tell that he was at least a little more grown than he'd been. Did that lend credence to the idea that he'd spent years here? He wasn't sure.

In the same vein, had he really died? He'd walked out into the blizzard and woken up on a beach. It had never quite added up, but now especially he questioned the reality of his situation. Did time pass at all in the afterlife? If he had really been dead for decades, he supposed Aang could've died and had his successor, but even then, why was his afterlife with two strange men on an empty island? None of this made much sense to him, but then again, nothing really made sense on the island.

He thought back to a brief talk with the two men he'd had, at some point, and had informed them about visions he was getting in his dreams. They nodded sagely and told him to simply try and decipher their meaning, but he'd yet to have any luck. He saw images of what he could only assume was Republic City and of a masked man, who he, since Korra had arrived, was starting to think was him. He saw the way the man moved, and it was all familiar to him, but he'd never really placed it until now; he felt a strong attachment to that man, but had no justification in his hypothesis. In any event, it certainly felt right. What was curious to him, was that he'd never seen himself bending, or bloodbending. Korra had mentioned something about taking other people's bendings away, like Aang had done to his father-

What felt like a bolt of lightning shot through his head, and his thoughts, which were starting to form clear images, jumbled into static and nonsense. He wasn't able to do more without risking another headache, he assumed, and tried his best to will away the migraine which was setting in.

He knew that, despite what his mind told him, he knew this girl was the Avatar. Either that, or it was the most elaborate prank ever pulled, orchestrated by some strange airbender and two old sages. Somehow, there was an Avatar that wasn't Aang, and she was outside, bickering with the deranged old man. Worse still, the cycle of Avatars should've meant the next Avatar was a Water Tribe avatar, and even if this Avatar had only learned one element, it should've been water, rather than air, seeing as that would have been the place she was born. None of this added up to him, and the closest he could figure was perhaps this was Aang's daughter, called 'Avatar' for some reason dealing with her parentage. She looked like a waterbender, but Aang had married a waterbender, or so his father had told him. He assumed it was possible for her to inherit her mother's looks and her father's airbending. Peeking his head up to a window, he saw the two starting to really argue, with the old man seeming to want anything but a fight.

'_Serves him right,' _Noatak thought, smirking. If those old geezers wanted to play games with _him _for all this time, it served them right. He was glad that she was going to stand up to him, but realized only a second later how disastrous that would probably be. If his bloodbending didn't work on them, and if they were strong enough to beat back his waterbending, he wasn't sure how she'd fare.

A more wicked part of him seemed to whisper, _'let her fail on her own. Perhaps they will even kill each other and both be out of your way.'_

He narrowed his eyes and decided not to interfere or warn her. In this case, he wanted to see what she was capable of, and perhaps what one of the mysterious men was hiding. He had hoped that her arrival would bring some answers to the fore, but at the very least she was entertaining him, even if she didn't know it.

As Noatak watched on from the window, Korra slammed the unsuspecting earthbender back with twin-blasts of air from her fists. Eyes widened in shock, they hit him head on and he was launched backwards into a dune. Springing forward, she followed up with two more air-jabs, pounding the old man farther into the sand, until only his legs were visible. Breathing heavy, Korra came down off her adrenaline rush a little, and realized that she just might've killed the man. He hadn't moved in a while, so she started to tentatively step forward, never leaving her stance, to inspect the damage she'd done. Had she looked more closely, she would have noticed slight rumblings in the sand.

She reared back in shock as the entire dune seemed to erupt, spraying sand in every direction, including at her. She felt it get into her mouth and hair, but managed to snap her eyes shut before she was blinded. Cracking them open, she saw him standing before her seemingly unhurt. If anything, he seemed to be a little more energetic than he had been before.

"That was awww-ful," he criticized, "you hit like a girl!"

Laughing at his own joke, he squeezed his eyes shut to accommodate a body-wracking laugh, more snorting than chuckling, as the girl fumed. Any sympathy she'd felt washed up in an instant. Although she hadn't killed him yet, Korra was starting to think it sounded pretty appealing.

"Graaaa!" She screamed, whipping up swirling winds around him, binding his limbs and lifting him up in the air.

"There! Not so snarky now, huh?" She gloated, panting slightly from the exertion. She was a new airbender, and hadn't ever really tested her limits before. She was worried that she was fast reaching them. She focused all of her energy on keeping him locked up in place, even as a small voice told her it was a fruitless endeavor. She assumed it was her mind playing devil's advocate, but the hazy image of this same man bound up in an iron casket told her otherwise. The image was gone as quickly as it had come

"I've got your limbs bound up, and you're not touching the ground anymore. Give up, you never stood a chance," she said, smirking. This was surprisingly easy, she knew, but she should have expected it. The guy was ancient and decrepit, he was never going to put up a real fight for the Avatar. Even Chief Beifong couldn't bend without moving, and Korra knew from experience that eartbending couldn't be accomplished unless you were in contact with the earth you were trying to bend.

She was preparing to demand his surrender when she felt herself hoisted off the ground by streams of sand, binding her in much the same way she'd bound him.

"Wha-What!?" She screeched, losing her hold over his prison. His cackling picked up again, and she saw him lifting his chin up defiantly. She realized too late that she shouldn't have underestimated him. He slammed his chin down, and her sand restraints took on a solidity she hadn't expected or imagined possible.

"How did you do that?" She demanded, not even fully comprehending what had just occurred.

"Face bending, of course!" He said, as if that were the answer to all her troubles. Staring him down and realizing he was serious, she yelled out in frustration, breaking her own sandy tomb.

"Stop playing games, let's go!" She ordered, charging him again. She realized now that he'd likely been bending for far longer than she had. Without access to the Avatar State or the other three elements, she would have to rely on the advantage she did have: at a fraction of his age, she would certainly be more physically able to fight, and she pressed this advantage by coming into melee range. She'd seen how effective he could be at range, but with an old body like his, he wouldn't be able to keep up with her up close. She was impressed with herself for thinking of this in time to utilize it: without the advantage she would receive from close-quarters combat,

she didn't know how much longer she could last against him.

She was surprised once again when he didn't make any attempt to keep her back. Korra wasn't one to question a gift, and grinned when she realized she could end this whole thing with one shot. It must have been his advanced age that stopped him from reacting quickly enough to her, as she was sprinting forward at full speed, with a small jetstream to run through. He started to shrug off his robe as she charged him, but she didn't let that stay her path. She was going to hit him hard, and hit him fast, using the air as an extension of her fists; Korra was horrified when she realized just what she'd gotten herself into. Once his robe was off, she saw his torso for the first time, and couldn't stop from gawking. He perceived her hesitation and grabbed her outstretched hand as she was passing him by, forcing her off balance with a quick strike, and slamming a pillar of sand into her back to launch her farther forward.

"Just what are you?" She asked, both embarrassed and scared. He was, by far, the most muscular human being she'd ever seen. Without an ounce of fat on him, he was basically just a ball of muscle and crazy.

"A feeble old man," he said, echoing her sentiment from earlier, "who's about to teach you a lesson in respect!"

From then on Korra was on the defensive, dodging sand blasts and occasionally rocks, all the time having to put up with his cackling and heckling. She saw now why Noatak couldn't fight these two men: even one of them was a master bender she was having trouble fending off.

Seeking refuge behind a thick palm tree, she felt blast after blast of earth his the trunk, and she realized that he intended to knock it over (probably for sport) rather than simply slide around it to continue his assault. He was giving her a moment to think, whether he knew it or not, or at least a minute to contemplate her mistakes before he picked up again. What confused her the most was that he didn't seem to be tiring out at all. Was that the mark of a master?

She wasn't faring quite as well. Already scraped and panting, she felt sweat cling to her eyebrows and sting her eyes. He was relentless, and she regretted ever picking a fight with him. Worst of all, she hadn't even managed to land a hit since he started coming at her! She'd shot blasts of air his way, but he seemed to always hit harder, breaking through the concentrated air with heavy rock. How did Aang manage to fight with only air when he was the Avatar? It seemed impossible; even smaller stones were breaking right through it, and her air-augmented strikes did little to the earthbender in front of her.

Noticing that the pounding on the treetrunk had stopped, Korra peeked her head around it, only to dart back behind as a large rock punctured the trunk and sent the tree toppling over. When Korra realized she was hiding behind what amounted to a stump, she came out from behind the mangled tree and saw the old man sitting cross-legged in the sand chewing on what looked like a crystal. Making a face of disgust, she caught his eye and he waved to her.

"I got hungry, so I'll give you a breather!" He called out, chomping on the colored crystal with gusto. He was eating sloppily, chewing with his mouth open, eyes closed in appreciation for the rock he was eating. Korra was almost naive enough to believe that it was eating rocks that made his earthbending so strong, and hoped that this wasn't how she was supposed to get her bending back. Once in a while, he scratched at his back or waved over whenever he caught her looking at him, but otherwise didn't move much at all.

She fumed, but wasn't stupid enough to attack him again, knowing exactly what that had gotten her the first time, and everytime after that. Korra wondered why she wasn't able to get to him. Tenzin would have been able to at least hold his own, and he'd never shown any real difficulty when confronted with earthbenders. Was her own airbending really so weak that she couldn't fight this guy, even though she was the Avatar? She thought back to her musings earlier on the beach: was she no longer fit to be Avatar?

"To have a chance, you're going to need to think differently than you usually would," he instructed, finishing his snack and rising to his feet.

Korra nearly bit off her own tongue as the floodgate that had been blocking the memories from her past lives seemed to come undone all at once. Her retort died in her throat as she struggled to make sense of all the images, scenes, people, and places she'd gotten all at once. With a new sense of clarity, she raised a shaky finger to point at her opponent, and had to stifle a gulp.

"I know your name," she whispered, eyes wide with shock.


	3. Chapter 3

"You're Bumi, the King of Omashu," Korra said, dropping her outstretched hand limply to her side.

"You're darn right I am," Bumi boasted, cracking out his spine as he rose to his feet.

"But how? Why? What's going on?" She shouted, rapid-fire, frenzied questions she wasn't really sure she even wanted the answers to.

He shrugged, and started punching at the air like she'd been doing their entire fight. Cylinders of rock shot out from large boulders behind him, and she was forced to dodge or be impaled.

"Pow, Pow. I'm the Avatar," He mocked, shadow-boxing as more and more rounds of rock came aimed at her head.

She blushed furiously as another rock came dangerously close to her, and she had to break it up with a precise jet of air, showering herself with pebbles.

"That is _not_ how I fight!" She bellowed, but betrayed herself as she sent out two quick punches and a kick of air his way. Turning even redder, she would have liked to just curl up into a ball and scream. He was making a mockery of everything she'd learned, how far she'd come!

"I've had just about enough of you, Bumi!"

"Always screaming and flailing. I'd hoped the Avatar would be less predictable," he taunted, sending another round of rocks her way. She froze in place, only barely launching herself off the ground to dodge another aimed at her legs.

"Don't you have any surprises for me? Sooner or later, you'll have to strike back," he said, and as she reached the earth, her landing was made rocky by the sudden rush of memory. She saw Aang as a boy, fighting the King, and heard the echoes of similar taunts against the previous Avatar. He, however, was accused of dodging and reflecting, rather than screaming and flailing. She felt even guiltier; at 12, Aang had a better understanding of life than her.

Leaping into the air with a gust of wind at her feet, Korra prepared to strike downwards at him, but he merely kicked a large boulder her way, which she dodged in the air. She was ready to finish her strike and prepare her gloating when he closed his open fist, detonating the boulder she thought had missed her, and the rubble grounded her again, making her land unceremoniously on her gut. She saw this as well, in her memory, and realized that Bumi was replaying his fight with Aang, to help her remember. He started to strut around in a small circle, each step punctuated by rock spires popping out from the sand, to her left and right, each easily as tall as her. This time, she looked into the memory first, and saw that Aang had been hit by a spike that came up in the middle, so she dodged out of the way accordingly when he telegraphed that particular attack.

Taking the moment she'd earned to breath deeply, she looked forward into the rest of the fight, and saw how Aang had turned it around. She tried to mirror his style of reflecting and dodging, but couldn't manage to strike in between her bouncing around, and any time she tried to strike back, she risked getting clobbered by a slab of rock. Truthfully, the only thing that got her this far was that Bumi was mirroring his duel with Aang near perfectly.

Bumi, sensing that Korra was leaning a bit too heavily on Aang's memories, pulled out a massive behemoth of a boulder from deep under the sand, leaving a marked indent on a large patch of beach where the boulder had once been. She had to force herself to keep moving as she realized he intended to end the fight the same way he had with Aang. She knew that Aang had split Bumi's projectile in two, and that the King had bent another large chunk of rock over his head to force the duel to a draw; if Aang had struck Bumi down, they both would have been crushed by the rock.

Anticipating this, and knowing that she couldn't cleave the boulder in two, Korra waited for him to release his projectile, and then dove under, rather than over it, into a sliding kick. When she reached melee range, she shot a huge blast of air into where she knew he'd have the second boulder set up-

Only to realize that he hadn't been bending anything above her at all.

"Guess again, sister," he chided, and she realized all too late that he was going to ambush her from behind, rather than from above. She felt rather than saw the massive rock from before rumbling back her way, and when she attempted to dodge again, or to break it down with airbending, he grabbed her shoulders and held her in place as her impending doom flew towards her. Instead of her life flashing before her eyes, she wondered how, in her final moments, Aang had managed to befriend this maniac. Her question was answered when, instead of crushing her, the rock broke down to dust, showering the area in a cloud of black and grey.

"Your airbending needs work," he commented, releasing her. She immediately fell to the ground shaking. She'd never imagined that she would've failed so miserably. Even with a play-by-play of the first fight, she hadn't managed to best him.

"But that's not the worst part," he said, face deathly serious. Korra feared now that she was beyond help. "You thought I'd use the same trick I used all those years ago? I'm offended."

Having regained some of Aang's memories, and realizing the absurdity of her entire situation, she starting laughing. Maybe it was due to her exhaustion, maybe it was because of the entire ordeal on the island, and maybe it was Aang's memories kicking in, but for whatever reason she couldn't stop. She lay back fully, clutching her stomach as she rolled around on the sand.

Bumi followed her lead and laughed along with her, until they were both breathing heavy and starting to feel the ache in their gut. Korra recovered first, while the old earthbender was still snorting away, so she got back on her feet and tapped him on the shoulder, focusing his attention. This time, she was the one feeling bashful.

"I really am sorry, King Bumi," she said, downcast eyes and sad face revealing the truth in her words, "I didn't mean what I said. I think the whole situation here really put me on edge, and I took my anger out on you."

He nodded knowingly, and replied soon after she'd finished.

"I should be apologizing to you as well, Korra. And I do mean _Korra_. I know that you're not Aang, but some part of me wanted to go back and relive those years with my friend."

He breathed out slowly, and Korra saw the weight of his years in his tired eyes.

"I can't ever be Aang, but maybe we could be friends, too?" She offered, and his face lit up.

"I'd like that very much, Avatar Korra," he replied, offering her a chunk of crystal, which she now recognized as genimite candy, grown off of his ring.

Taking it graciously, she grinned along with him.

"Bumi, you really are a mad genius!"

It wasn't long until Iroh had made his way down to the beach, much to Korra's delight. Along with Aang's memories of Bumi came Aang's memories of Iroh. Now that she knew who he was, and felt safe around him, the young Avatar took to him very quickly. The trio was eating a makeshift picnic out on the sand when Korra started to pick up the questioning from earlier that day.

"Why didn't you just tell me who you were?" Was her first question, and the two men had the decency to look sheepish.

"We wanted you to gain access to Aang's memories before we revealed ourselves. It is one thing to claim to be good teachers who knew Aang, and another entirely to see the relationship we had with him during his life," Iroh explained.

"Does that mean you can answer my questions now?" Was her second, and she glared at her two teachers with accusatory eyes.

"To some extent. We're really not that up on much of this ourselves," Bumi confessed, shrugging.

"Well at least tell me this; why am I really here? Like, _here_ specifically. I know I'm supposed to regain my bending, but why take me here instead of letting the Order of the White Lotus try to help?"

"That is a question I can answer," Iroh piped in between sips of tea. "Aang designated the White Lotus to teach you the bending arts long before you were born. He thought that the Order would prove helpful in guiding you along your path to becoming the Avatar."

"Yeah, I know that already," Korra said, waving her hand in dismissal, "so why not let them do their job?"

"You see, Korra, Iroh and me were part of the White Lotus when Aang was the Avatar, so as he started to grow up, he started to think about possible scenarios that would happen after Iroh and me went off to the big lion-turtle in the sky. He was confident that the new White Lotus masters would be able to teach you what you needed to learn, but was always wondering what the next Avatar would do if she got into a mess too big for the new guys to handle."

Korra realized that she actually was in 'a mess too big' for the White Lotus to handle, and grinned sheepishly.

"So Aang had us come to live in the Spirit World. He thought ahead enough to have us do this from the Northern Spirit Portal up at the North Pole, so we kept our bending even in the Spirit World. We lived there for a time, but felt our chi being pulled towards this place, so we set out as soon as we could. Who'd of thunk we'd get here at the same time as that pretty little waterbender in there," Bumi gestured to the hut where Noatak lived, "and what felt like _ages_ before you'd get here."

Korra nodded in understanding, feeling the last of her hesitation and regrets that had built up since Amon took her bending slip away from her. She was here with two of the greatest bending masters in history, and they were going to teach her how to get her bending back!

"Little squirt even tried to bloodbend me," Bumi griped, but broke into a fit of giggles soon after. Korra quirked an eyebrow, and replied, "what do you mean_ tried _to bloodbend you? If he can see you, he can lock you up easy."

Bumi and Iroh looked at each other knowingly, but it was Iroh who spoke first.

"We are spirits in this world, and are not truly made of flesh and blood. His bloodbending cannot harm the two of us while we are here."

"Did he try and fight you like I did?" Korra asked, looking at Bumi. He nodded, but waved her off.

"Wasn't that big a deal. He's really gotten reliant on that bloodbending of his, even at so young an age. His regular waterbending suffered pretty drastically. I think he's been practicing more since he's been here, though."

"Did...did Aang bring him here?" She whispered, leaning in close. She wasn't sure she liked the idea of her third teacher being Amon.

"We know as little about that as you do, Avatar. To be here would mean that he died, but you say you knew him when he was an older man. It is possible that this is merely the form his spirit took, but as to why he came to the Spirit World in the first place," Iroh finished his cup of tea with a shrug, " I do not know. He does not seem to remember his life as the masked man, but he spoke to us about seeing visions in his dreams of what you described his life to have been. It is a most peculiar situation."

Korra would just have to live with that for now, she supposed. He was the only waterbender on the island anyway, so he would have to be good enough.

"Last question. Why do I suck so much at airbending?"

Bumi started laughing again, and she had to wait until he finished his snorting fit to expect an answer.

"Jerk," she muttered, which only sent him further over the edge until Iroh bopped him lightly on the head with an empty teacup.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he consoled, wiping tears away from the corner of his eyes, "but that was about the bluntest question I've ever heard."

"Seriously, though. I mastered the other three elements no problem, but I couldn't learn airbending for months. Even when I managed to use it, I feel that it's really weak compared to the other three. Is that just the nature of air?"

"You sound like you could've been born an earthbender," Bumi murmured, loud enough for her to hear, "because Earth is strong and forceful to Air's swift and deflecting nature."

"So I just don't think like an airbender? Should I not bother with it then?" She asked, hopeful to have him condone her ignoring of airbending completely to launch herself into something she was more familiar with.

He looked at her with disbelief in his eyes. 

"Toph once told me that Aang nearly decided the same thing about firebending, and that he took about as well to earthbending as a frog-fish to the desert. What is it with you Avatars and ditching elements you don't learn quickly?" Bumi bemoaned, face in his hands. Korra stuck her tongue out at him when she realized he was joking with her, and retorted, "You're a little sassy for an Earth King."

He mirrored her stuck-out tongue until Iroh bopped him on the head again, forcing him to reel back in pain as he nearly bit through it.

"You struggle with airbending because you do not use it like airbending," Iroh explained, but Korra looked even more confused than before.

"What does that mean? How can I use airbending not like airbending? It's not like I'm shooting out rocks or fire."

"Ah, but that is where you are wrong," Iroh postulated, and Korra looked more confused still.

"When you airbend, you fight like you're using a different element," Bumi clarified, after he'd finished nursing his tongue.

"Remember when I was imitating you in our fight?" He queried, as if it had been long ago instead of only a short while.

She blushed bright red, but nodded. He'd really made sure he rubbed his point in well during that duel.

"That _really is _what you look like when you bend. You couldn't get any hits in on me because you were trying to trade blows between stone and air. Think about it for a second, girlie."

Before she could say anything back, she started to actually understand what he meant. She was guilty of bending like a pro-bender in the ring whenever she fought, which simply wouldn't work with air; it wasn't a projectile she could launch so much as something that was there all the time. When she tried to hit him with air-punches, she couldn't stop his stones any better than the wind itself could. Once he saw the expression of understanding cross her visage, he nodded.

"Looks like you're starting to think outside the box, Korra, and that's a good enough start for me," he said, rising to his feet. Iroh did the same, and together they started to head off into the treeline.

"Wait, where are you going?" She asked.

"I thought you said you'd asked your last question," Bumi called over his shoulder, much to Korra's chagrin. Before she could respond, Iroh took to answering her.

"Back to our home. To drink tea, play Pai Sho, and meditate."

"My word, we're two old codgers," Bumi moaned, hands up in exasperation. Korra chuckled as they left her field of view, and started to consider the benefits of meditating herself. She wasn't really good at it, but maybe even her mediocre skill could help reveal more about her airbending and her mission here overall.

Before she could even start to think about how to go about meditating, a looming presence over her shoulder startled her. She shivered involuntarily as she thought of just how creepy it was that Noatak had snuck up on her.

"I think we need to talk as well," he informed her, and she wondered just how long he'd been ready to pounce. Had he been eavesdropping on her entire conversation with Iroh and Bumi? She regretted picking a hut on the beach instead of looking elsewhere on the island, or finding other living arrangements on another beach. What had she been thinking when she chose to settle down so close to him?

"What about?" She replied, trying her best to play dumb. He stepped out from behind her back and into her field of vision, and she paled. That approach wasn't going to work on him.

"You seem to know something about the visions I've been having that those two won't tell me about. I expect that you will be more forthcoming." He leered down at her, but Korra was too petrified to stand up to meet his gaze. She looked pleadingly to the treeline, hoping against hope that Bumi would rush in and save her, but the Earth King was gone.

"I-I don't know what you mean," she stammered, which only served to amplify his ire further. He looked downright furious for a brief moment before running a hand through the front of his hair, and settling his face into a mask of supreme calm.

"In twenty four hours, I've heard that I'm actually dead no less than twice, and you seem to think that I've been in Republic City on a reign of terror. I can inform you that I've never seen the place, let alone tried to take over the city, but I'd imagine you wouldn't come up with such an elaborate lie if you didn't at least think it was true, _Avatar_."

She almost missed how angry he'd been before. At least then, she could tell what he was thinking, but now he seemed frigid and unreadable.

"In that vein," he continued, "why am I to believe that _you_ are the Avatar?"

"I _am_ the Avatar," she said, trying to sound imposing and resolute, but she realized as the words left her mouth that she sounded hoarse, having a hard time forcing herself to speak clearly.

"Aang is the Avatar. You must be a child of his," Noatak responded, waving a hand in dismissal, "otherwise, you wouldn't be an airbender; if you could only bend one element, it would be water."

"Well here I am, and I'm an airbender, to boot," she said, gaining confidence back. Who was he to question her?

"Then explain what happened to Aang. He was alive and well a year before I came here. I am not nearly twenty years older, as you can plainly see," he explained, gesturing to himself. He looked young, Korra knew, but Iroh had mentioned physical age not reflecting the truth of the matter.

"He died, Noatak, the same as anyone else does," she said, shrugging. She wasn't really concerned about what he thought, and was ready to end this conversation as soon as possible.

"Then _how_ are _you_ so _old_?" he demanded, crossing his arms. She couldn't help but laugh; on this island with two old men, and he was wondering why _she_ was old? When he'd sieged Republic City, he'd been twice her age.

"Am I amusing you?" He hissed, balling his hands into fists. She sobered instantly, and went immediately on edge. He was stuck here as much as her, and couldn't harm her with bloodbending while they were here, she assumed. She should make some effort to explain what was going on to him.

"You've caused me nothing but trouble," he went on, although she really couldn't see what he meant; as far as he was concerned, she'd only been introduced to him a day ago.

"How do you figure?" She asked, tilting her head. Genuine curiosity overtook her fear.

"I've been having visions of a man in Republic City wearing a strange white and red mask. You've been in those visions," he revealed, pointing an accusatory finger at her.

"His name is Amon," Korra explained, and he nodded.

"It sounds familiar," he agreed, and she hoped that it didn't sound _too_ familiar.

"What is his relation to me?" He asked.

Korra was silent at that. How much was she supposed to tell him? He was young here, and he hadn't become that man yet. What if Iroh was right, and he had really died? Would there be any harm in explaining it to him? Deciding to err on the side of caution, Korra was prepared to deny any connection until he exhaled deeply and spoke again.

"He's me, isn't he? That man in the mask? He's my future self."

The Avatar was even more split on how to handle the situation now. Why was he here in the first place? Surely this could only lead to trouble if he ever remembered his goal to destroy her.

"He is," she said, before she could stop herself. Noatak's eyes went wide as he struggled to find words to address what she'd confirmed.

"Why am I here? Like this? You know the man I became, so why am I here now?"

She had no idea how to answer him. She knew, logically, that as the only other waterbender on the island, he was supposed to be her teacher. Tossing their personal history and his apparent death, however, she really had no idea how that was going to happen.

"What if I really am dead?" He whispered, and sat down on the sand to compose himself. Being confronted with his own death seemed to knock the wind out of his sails. The two sat in silence for what could've been a lifetime before Korra tried to console him.

"If you're here, there must be a reason. There's no way Aang would bring you here without reason."

His face took on an unreadable expression again. She realized only moments after the words had left her lips that his father had been out to kill Aang, and that Noatak, at this age, might still be on that mission.

"My father would have had me kill him. I suppose he would have settled for you," Noatak said, with a wave of his hand, demeaning the importance of the statement. She winced at how casually he was discussing his plan to kill the Avatar.

"I am _not_ my father, though," he continued, "and any blood he had between himself and Aang died with his own ability to exact revenge, and died with Aang. I have no quarrel with you, Avatar."

She wanted to correct him, to explain that he _did _have bad blood with her, but when she actually considered it, she wondered why. He'd rebelled against his father Yakone at a young age, and had, between that time and his arrival in Republic City, rekindled his father's grudge against the Avatar. If he didn't want to kill the Avatar in young adulthood, why would he have come after her in Republic City as an adult? Unfortunately, this version of Noatak wouldn't have the answers to her questions.

"I'm glad you're not trying to kill me," she said, but when his face remained stony she let out a few self-conscious chuckles.

"It would be a waste of time and effort," he clarified, but without malice. He really didn't want to kill her, she realized, and she wondered again how he had come to want to hunt after her.

"What else do you know about me?" He asked, and this time she doubted he would veer off topic.

"I don't know how it would affect the future if I told you," she confessed, but the idea of preventing Amon before he really came to be was tempting to her.

"It is very likely that I am dead," he confessed, looking down to his hands as if wondering how a dead man could still have warm, human hands, "there is no harm telling me. I cannot leave this place, and the visions are becoming unbearable."

He looked pained, and his slightly bloodshot eyes told her he'd been unable to sleep lately. Was she able to put him through mental torture, knowing she could prevent it?

"Tell me what you've seen so far, and I'll tell you what I know," she relented.

He nodded solemnly, and Korra inwardly groaned, wondering just what she'd gotten into.

As the two youths conversed on the beach, the island's two elderly residents were finishing the trek back to their dwelling. Unlike Korra and Noatak, who'd found themselves settling in small huts on the beach, Iroh and Bumi were situated on a rocky outcrop, in the Royal Family's summer home. Iroh felt nostalgic every time he saw the place he'd spent so many of his idle summer days in, and he still felt the memories of his family haunting him, even in death. The house itself was well kept, exactly as it had been when his nephew had used it as a base for Team Avatar's preparations for Sozin's Comet.

It felt more empty than it had when he'd come here in life, without the bustling of children and the good company of his extended family. He and Bumi occupied only a small portion of the place, as the Earth King likely felt the same loneliness; it was shameful to feel so nostalgic at a ghostly representation of a place from his life, but more shameful to ignore it entirely instead of facing it, and live in a hut or small house instead.

"I think he's already putting the pieces together," Bumi mused aloud, and Iroh nodded as they walked into the place.

"His visions have been worsening these last few weeks. I hadn't expected him to realize his situation fully before the Avatar arrived. It would have made matters simpler," Iroh responded, and it was Bumi's turn to nod.

"There'll be a really nasty problem when he gets all his memories back. He may try and kill her again," Bumi warned, but Iroh's eyes were twinkling.

"Hopefully by that point, he will reconcile his later life with a new path to forge. I only hope that things take their natural course, and that Korra will show discretion in their interactions until that point."

"Yeah, yeah. Because the one thing she's good at is discretion," he joked, and they shared a laugh as the door closed behind them.


End file.
